Amy Balliett
BornOctober 1982[1]
Cleveland, Ohio
NationalityAmerican
OccupationEntrepreneur
Years active2009—present
Known forKiller Visual Strategies

Amy Balliett (born October 1982, Cleveland[2]) is an American entrepreneur and gay rights activist living in Seattle, Washington. She is best known for being the founder and CEO of Killer Visual Strategies, an award-winning visual communication agency located in Seattle.[3]

Early life

At age 17, Balliett became the manager of the Linwood Park Stand. The stand was already an established penny candy store and ice cream parlor in the center of the park.[4] Balliett managed the business for two summers before attending college at Wright State University for two quarters. In the spring of 2002, Balliett transferred from Wright State to Cleveland State University to attend CSU's First College program. In just two and a half years, she graduated with a four-year BFA in Cinematography with a minor in Diversity Marketing.[5][6]

Career

Upon graduation, Balliett moved to Seattle, Washington in 2004, where she started working in motion-picture marketing before fully moving into marketing.[7] She has headed SEO at several companies.[8] She and Nick Grant started the 7 Figure Project under which they created ZippyCart.com and OurtBeat.com, both of which were eventually sold.[5][9]

Balliett made news in 2008 as the person responsible for starting the Join the Impact organization with friend Willow Witte in response to the passage of Proposition 8 in California during the 2008 US elections.[2][10] Join the Impact organized the National Day of Protest on November 15, 2008.[11] The protest took place in more than 400 cities in every state in the country and in ten countries around the world. The protest was attended by an estimated one million people worldwide.[12]

Balliett is included on a list of out influential people in The Advocate's "Forty under 40" issue of June/July 2009.[13]

Baillett enjoys public speaking[7] and has spoken at Adobe MAX (2013)[14] and Cloudinary's ImageCon in 2019,[15] and has lectured at institutions such as School of Visual Concepts,[16] LinkedIn Learning,[17] and Vancouver Community College.[18]

In 2009, Balliett and her co-founder Nick Grant partnered to build lead generation–based websites. Balliett invested $750.[19] In the fall of 2010, the business pivoted to an entirely new model: visual communication design. In the years since, Killer Infographics has become the leader in its industry, driving visual strategy and campaigns for such global brands as Microsoft, Boeing, Adobe, Nikon, Starbucks, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the United Nations. [7] In 2019, Killer changed its name to Killer Visual Strategies.[20] Nick Grant left the company in 2017[9] and it was acquired by LRW Group in early 2019 in what Balliett calls a partnership.[9][21]

Personal life

Balliett has an older brother and sister.[22] Their mom owned a fabric store and their dad sold hydraulics for a major firm in Ohio; they are both entrepreneurs.[22][16] Balliett met her wife Jessica Trejo in 2006 at a coffee shop concert in Seattle's Capitol Hill; the couple married in California in 2008 a month before the state stopped granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples.[23][24]

References

  1. ↑ Coombs, Casey (2019-01-28). "Behind the deal: CEO Amy Balliett got a killer deal for her birthday". Biz Journals. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  2. 1 2 Messer, Katie X. (2008-11-12). "Prop 8 Exclusive: Young gay marriage activist leads national protests". 365Gay. Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
  3. ↑ "Amy Balliett – Killer Visual Strategies". The Success Bug. 2020-12-15. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  4. ↑ Do, Chris (2020-06-06). "From ice cream parlor to design studio". The Futur. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  5. 1 2 "Q&A With Amy Balliett: Killer Infographics CEO and Co-Founder". Kelton Global. 2019-05-21. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  6. ↑ "Amy Balliett". GDUSA. 2017. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  7. 1 2 3 Yakovich, Polly (2020-08-19). "Establishing Your Visual Strategy, with Amy Balliett". A Brave New. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  8. ↑ "MEET AMY BALLIETT About Amy". Killer Visual Strategies. n.d. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  9. 1 2 3 Soper, Taylor (2019-01-29). "Q&A: The bootstrapping CEO of Killer Infographics on celebrating mistakes and why she sold her firm". GeekWire. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  10. ↑ "JoinTheImpact is Today!". Seattle Gay Scene. 2008-11-15. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  11. ↑ Hannah, Moser (2008-11-17). "Hundreds protest Prop. 8 in Providence". The Brown Daily Herald. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  12. ↑ Garcia, Michelle (2009-01-13). "People of the Year: Amy Balliett". Advocate. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  13. ↑ "Forty Under 40: Activism". Advocate. 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-05-10. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  14. ↑ Richards, Hayden (n.d.). "Startup Killer infographics Finds the right formulae". IntelligentHQ. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  15. ↑ Sarathy, Sanjay (2019-03-11). "ImageCon 2019 Speaker Amy Balliett on Visual Communication". Cloudinary. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  16. 1 2 Stewart, Ashley (2014-09-15). "40 Under 40 2014: Amy Balliett". Biz Journals. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  17. ↑ "Amy Balliett". LinkedIn. n.d. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  18. ↑ "Graphic designers connect to raise COVID-19 funds". Vancouver Community College. 2020-08-04. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  19. ↑ Smith, Rob (2020). "2020 Executive Excellence Awards: Amy Balliett, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, Killer Visual Strategies". Seattle Business. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  20. ↑ "Leading Visual Communication Agency Changes Its Name". PRWeb. 2019-06-18. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  21. ↑ "LRW Group Acquires Killer Infographics". Kelton. 2019-01-08. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  22. 1 2 "Women in Business: Amy Balliett, Co-Founder, Killer Infographics". Huff Post. 2015-06-01. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  23. ↑ Turnbull, Lornet (2009-06-27). "Gay rights mean different things to different generations of community". Seattle Times. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  24. ↑ Howard Israel, ed. (2009-07-09). "S/he said". Between the Lines. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
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